Replies To: Hi IM new to XNA and wanted some help getting started.

Re: Hi IM new to XNA and wanted some help getting started.

Posted 16 October 2012 - 08:12 AM

It looks like you've got a decent place to start. Now you just need to begin to learn how to write code. Don't expect to make massive leaps forward and be able to create games within a week or even a month. This is a long process that will take an indeterminable amount of time based on how much effort you put forth and how well you retain the knowledge you learn. Check out some tutorials online, including the ones here on Dream.In.Code and don't get discouraged if it takes you longer than you think it should.

Re: Hi IM new to XNA and wanted some help getting started.

Posted 16 October 2012 - 08:46 AM

Kilorn, on 16 October 2012 - 08:12 AM, said:

It looks like you've got a decent place to start. Now you just need to begin to learn how to write code. Don't expect to make massive leaps forward and be able to create games within a week or even a month. This is a long process that will take an indeterminable amount of time based on how much effort you put forth and how well you retain the knowledge you learn. Check out some tutorials online, including the ones here on Dream.In.Code and don't get discouraged if it takes you longer than you think it should.

thanks. i already have a few things written in vb i have a map structure that i could add graphics to and a battle system set up. my only issue was getting object that were large than on tile to work with A*. and factoring the movement cost of all the tiles it occupied. im not dreaming of making a huge game or a great game i have a very simple idea that i believe is acheivable and have come very close using vb.net until i realized all my code used windows api calls and need a better platform for graphics thats when i discovered xna. I would prefer to work in 2d cause it is much simpler but the thought of drawing 5000+ pictures is a strong deternt. i hope working with 3d is easier or at least less time consumming. sorry about bad spelling its just never been my thing had to cheat on my first spelling test we all have our weak points mines spelling

Re: Hi IM new to XNA and wanted some help getting started.

There you will find resource programs like Paint.Net (very nice program considering it's free) and RB Witiker's website (which is a must read if you are just getting started in XNA (It's a must read for me and I'm not exactly just getting started).

Also, RB just came out with a book on C# 5.0. I'm only on about chapter 6 or so, but it's an excelent beginner's book on C#. Again, I'm not exactly a beginner, but I've already learned a few things from it and expect to learn quite a bit more. But it's written for the absolute beginner. That may help a lot if you're moving from VB.Net to C#.Net.

I'm not sure what you mean about "5000+ pictures" being a good reason to go over to 3D. I love XNA for 3D. And there's no reason you can't experiement with it. But 3D tends to be about 100 to 1000 times harder than 2D. Everything about 3D is just much more difficult. Some of the math in games is a little difficult to learn, but it's MUCH harder to understand the math in 3D if you don't already understand the math in 2D. Likewise, it takes some serious artistic skill to draw nice looking sprites and annimate them. But that's just the tip of the iceberg compared to sculpting a nice looking 3D model, texturing it (which probably requires almost as much artistic skills as just simply drawing sprites takes), applying effects maps like bump maps and specular maps, rigging it so that it can be annimated, and annimating it with Poser or some sort of annimation software. And the computer code to apply all those special effects to your model and annimate your model difficult enough that it's not covered in many of the XNA books.

So, play around with 3D and learn about it. But I would recommend sticking with 2D until you feel pretty confident that you can tackle most anything in 2D. It's only going to get more difficult and time consuming in 3D.

There you will find resource programs like Paint.Net (very nice program considering it's free) and RB Witiker's website (which is a must read if you are just getting started in XNA (It's a must read for me and I'm not exactly just getting started).

Also, RB just came out with a book on C# 5.0. I'm only on about chapter 6 or so, but it's an excelent beginner's book on C#. Again, I'm not exactly a beginner, but I've already learned a few things from it and expect to learn quite a bit more. But it's written for the absolute beginner. That may help a lot if you're moving from VB.Net to C#.Net.

I'm not sure what you mean about "5000+ pictures" being a good reason to go over to 3D. I love XNA for 3D. And there's no reason you can't experiement with it. But 3D tends to be about 100 to 1000 times harder than 2D. Everything about 3D is just much more difficult. Some of the math in games is a little difficult to learn, but it's MUCH harder to understand the math in 3D if you don't already understand the math in 2D. Likewise, it takes some serious artistic skill to draw nice looking sprites and annimate them. But that's just the tip of the iceberg compared to sculpting a nice looking 3D model, texturing it (which probably requires almost as much artistic skills as just simply drawing sprites takes), applying effects maps like bump maps and specular maps, rigging it so that it can be annimated, and annimating it with Poser or some sort of annimation software. And the computer code to apply all those special effects to your model and annimate your model difficult enough that it's not covered in many of the XNA books.

So, play around with 3D and learn about it. But I would recommend sticking with 2D until you feel pretty confident that you can tackle most anything in 2D. It's only going to get more difficult and time consuming in 3D.

thanks for the execellent advice. my idea is actually exetremely simple make a map that can handle players that occupy multiple tiles, have obsticals that need to be navigated, multilayered objects such as houses that cut away when u enter them. and the maps will be small 50 X 50 at the max. each player will be given 10 units that are under AI control. the goal of the game is to use learning algorityms to bread behaviors in the players units and use an AI set up kind of like in dragon age to determin when each of the trained behaviours should be used to acheive success in the game. me im trying to keep everything but the AI as simple as possible.

Re: Hi IM new to XNA and wanted some help getting started.

Re: Hi IM new to XNA and wanted some help getting started.

Posted 18 October 2012 - 07:36 AM

As a fellow new programmer, I'd start with Reimer's 2D tutorial, and RB Whitaker has some good ones as well. Forgive me for not having the links, but I'm on a school computer with an obnoxious amount of blocks. Once you have simple programs down, I'd look into Nick Gravelyn's youtube series on a 2D tile engine that the fine folks here referred me to. That's about as far as I've gotten so far, but I've learned a lot, especially from Nick Gravelyn's tutorials.

There you will find resource programs like Paint.Net (very nice program considering it's free) and RB Witiker's website (which is a must read if you are just getting started in XNA (It's a must read for me and I'm not exactly just getting started).

Also, RB just came out with a book on C# 5.0. I'm only on about chapter 6 or so, but it's an excelent beginner's book on C#. Again, I'm not exactly a beginner, but I've already learned a few things from it and expect to learn quite a bit more. But it's written for the absolute beginner. That may help a lot if you're moving from VB.Net to C#.Net.

I'm not sure what you mean about "5000+ pictures" being a good reason to go over to 3D. I love XNA for 3D. And there's no reason you can't experiement with it. But 3D tends to be about 100 to 1000 times harder than 2D. Everything about 3D is just much more difficult. Some of the math in games is a little difficult to learn, but it's MUCH harder to understand the math in 3D if you don't already understand the math in 2D. Likewise, it takes some serious artistic skill to draw nice looking sprites and annimate them. But that's just the tip of the iceberg compared to sculpting a nice looking 3D model, texturing it (which probably requires almost as much artistic skills as just simply drawing sprites takes), applying effects maps like bump maps and specular maps, rigging it so that it can be annimated, and annimating it with Poser or some sort of annimation software. And the computer code to apply all those special effects to your model and annimate your model difficult enough that it's not covered in many of the XNA books.

So, play around with 3D and learn about it. But I would recommend sticking with 2D until you feel pretty confident that you can tackle most anything in 2D. It's only going to get more difficult and time consuming in 3D.

thanks for the execellent advice. my idea is actually exetremely simple make a map that can handle players that occupy multiple tiles, have obsticals that need to be navigated, multilayered objects such as houses that cut away when u enter them. and the maps will be small 50 X 50 at the max. each player will be given 10 units that are under AI control. the goal of the game is to use learning algorityms to bread behaviors in the players units and use an AI set up kind of like in dragon age to determin when each of the trained behaviours should be used to acheive success in the game. me im trying to keep everything but the AI as simple as possible.

Wow, I was contemplating a mock up of a puzzle game that used AI for problem solving. I haven't exactly thought much into it, but I was mulling over Genetic Algorithms.

If you can wrap your head around them, you can give the user the ability to breed their solutions!

Definitely worth a look if your planning a game where the user can modify instructions to their AI.

My idea was to create on of those funny virus games, where you lay down the instructions and try get your virus to be successful.